Tuesday Morning Commute - So much to say

Good morning. Too busy to read this. But if you want to summarize it for others, the comments are open. 

• According to DDOT, there will be no hooks or racks on DC streetcars, but cyclists will be able to bring their bikes onboard. Unfortunately their policy will mirror WMATA’s for bikes on the Metrorail, which will probably mean a rush hour ban.
• DC wants to narrow roads and add a bike trail. VA and MD, less so. 
• InTowner wonders about the Council's desire to ban smoking near trails (sorry smoking bicyclists). Also asks "Having voted to penalize operators of motor vehicles for failing to yield to cyclists, why was there no provision for penalizing cyclists for failing to yield to pedestrians both on sidewalks and in crosswalks in the streets?" The answer is a bit of what they say later - this isn't a very big problem - but also that they have the law wrong. Both failures to yield are already illegal and carry penalties. DC is increasing the fine for hitting a cyclist with a car and adding points. Maybe the fine for cyclists hitting pedestrians needs to be increased, but we don't give points on a driver's license for non-driving activity.
• "A boy riding a bicycle was hit by a car and critically injured Sunday evening in the Bowie area of Prince George’s County....Preliminary investigation indicated that the driver was unaware of the boy who was trying to cross the street,"
• "The Madison Manor Bike Club will host the second annual “Phoenix Rising” celebration in support of Phoenix Bikes on Saturday, July 20 from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Dominion Hills Pool clubhouse, 6000 Wilson Blvd."
• "A fan on her way to a Dave Matthews concert pulled over to help a stranded bicyclist, who turned out to be none other than the singer himself."
• "A few years ago, What Would You Do?, an ABC-TV hidden-camera show, set up a situation where two actors posed as bike thieves in a public park, using bolt cutters and hack saws to cut a bike chain. The results were instructive. Over the course of an hour, a hundred people passed the white “thief” by with barely a glance. The black one had hardly gotten to work before a crowd of whites gathered around him, interrogating him, lecturing him, calling 911, even shooting cell phone video." [OT: Listening to Zimmerman's brother yesterday morning fret that someone might take the law into their own hands and behave like a vigilante - without a hint of irony - was a bit surreal]

Comments

[Crickey7]

I would like to invite all our Dutch friends who sneer at lycra and jerseys to ride 10 miles in work clothes each way this week.

Veel geluk.

[Aaron]

"...we don't give points on a driver's license for non-driving activity."

Inaccurate. You can absolutely get points on your license while riding a bicycle in Virginia, and I expect that to be true elsewhere.

[Robert Mandle]

DDOT claims that 15th Street cycle track is complete. The CLRP has it going all the way to Constitution. It ends at Pennsylvania. DDOT should really finish the project (and stand up to the "tourist knick-knack industry") or the CLRP should be modified to be accurate.

According to the CLRP document, "In 2010, DDOT submitted five bike lane projects for inclusion in the CLRP as pilot studies. Two of these projects – 15th St. NW from Constitution Ave. NW to W St. NW and nd Pennsylvania Ave. NW from 3rd St. NW to 14th St. NW – were completed in 2010."

[washcycle]

Aaron, do you have a cite for that? I'm pretty confident about DC not giving points and that's what I was referring to.

[Aaron]

I have no idea about DC or MD, but unfortunately I have personal experience in Virginia. I stopped at a stop sign without putting my foot down last year, and I got a citation under VA 46.2-821 (failure to yield). The code uses the term "vehicles," which applies equally to bikes and cars.

It was a $95 fine plus some number of points on my driver's license (Maybe 2 or 3?). Thankfully, a sympathetic lawyer was able to negotiate it down to just the fine.

[Crickey7]

And that is why I am a footdragger.

[oboe]

"I would like to invite all our Dutch friends who sneer at lycra and jerseys to ride 10 miles in work clothes each way this week."

Easy! Just don't ride so hard. You'll arrive dry and fresh as a baby! (At least according to that loon from Copenhagenize!)